Need odd-ball literature recommendations

[Character Assassin]

Here's the sitch:

My mother and aunt are two of the most voracious readers I know, and I've got to get my aunt a xmas present. They and I have wildly divergent tastes; they like nothing I like, I hate what they like.

There are only two exceptions to this rule: my mother loved (as everyone probably would) 'The Fox Woman' and my aunt loved 'Bridge of Birds', two of my fave's.

That said, if anyone is familiar with those titles, any recommendations for similar books? I've got to squeeze Border's in between lunch, the gym and work, so the quicker the better.

Thanks in advance, and keep in mind that it can't be so obscure as to not be in stock at a Border's (and the one in the Monterey area is actually very well-stocked).

CA

[terrya]

1. "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides

It's a remarkable novel. By the author of "The Virgin Suicides"

[Richardo]

2. There's an odd new book out with the great title:

"Winner of the National Book Award"

...about two mid-aged twin sisters (complete opposites in temperment, sexual appetites, etc.) and the man that comes between them. Quirky, but fun.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2TBM5ZD12G&isbn=0312311818&itm=1

[terrya]

4. Excellent choice!

I just finished reading Jinsey Willett's book. Wonderfully quirky and fun!

[phaseolus]

3. "Heart of a Dog", Bulgakov

probably about 70 years old now. A story about a Soviet scientist who manages to turn a dog into a human being, who then gets a job as a commissar in charge of killing cats. Kind of funny, actually, and no cat-killing scenes that I can remember.

[Character Assassin]

7. Good call. We've all read that one.

I actually read that one in Moscow, believe it or not.

[KCDem]

12. How about Master and Margarita then?

Another wonderful book.

What were you doing in Moscow? I used to live in St. Pete, and then later in Kaliningrad (obl.)

[Character Assassin]

14. Newp, we've read that as well. One of the finest Russian novels, ever.

Or just finest plain old novels, in general.

I was living with my finacee at the NGU at the time, working as a consultant to a mininstry that had to learn accounting.

I don't live there now, we're divorced, but the novels are still good ;-)

[KCDem]

17. funny side note

You know that little song they used to play (maybe still do) on the Russian Radio station (and by THE, I mean THE) at the hour.. the one called "Podmoskovye vechera"? We used to sing our own version of it: "everybody dies in the books we read". Maybe one of those "have to be there" stories, but we thought it was funny.

[bif]

5. Check out this websiite

You type three of your favorite authors and it makes reccommendations. Same with music. It's quite cool--and you'll get turned on to stuff you probably never heard of.

http://www.gnod.net/

[bif]

6. Here are a couple of offbeat books

"Poby and Dingan" by Ben Rice and "The Man Who Ate the 747" by Ben Sherwood.

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. "Amsterdam", by Ian MacEwan...

Twisted and blackly funny tale of two old friends and rivals who each arrange to have the other killed by going to a group that performs euthanasia on terminal patients and fabricating an unpleasant medical condition (that involves loss of mental faculties, so if they say "I'm perfectly fine! What the hell are you doing?" they'll be ignored).

Assuming neither your mother nor your aunt have read it, might be a good choice. Highly recommended. Also, making the same assumption, Salman Rushdie's most recent, "Fury", is pretty decent and rather offbeat, too.

[bif]

9. Austerlitz

by W.G. Sebald

[soothsayer]

10. I love "The Crying of Lot 49"---who can resist a book on an underground

postal system?

Sticking to the postal theme, Bukowski's "Post Office" is great, too!

[nostamj]

11. if you've never read Sherri S. Tepper...

she's shelved with Sci-Fi but her work goes much further and is generally devoid of 'hard science' elements.

rather she uses 'alien' settings to probe big human issues.
esp. regarding the role of women in society.

i just read the exxtraordinary "Singer From the Sea" which makes Handmaiden's Tale read like Disney.

I can also highly recommend "Grass," "Raising the Stones," "The Fresco" and "The Family Tree"

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/Sheri_S_Tepper.htm

[Character Assassin]

15. I freakin' LOVE Sherri Tepper, esp. 'Grass'.

Tried it on both of 'em. They poo-poo'd it as 'science fiction'.

So, you can see why my task is so difficult.

"The Family Tree" was the single best story I've ever read that was utterly, completely and irrevocably destroyed by the last 3 or four pages. God, what an astounding let-down.

[nostamj]

16. They poo-poo'd it as 'science fiction'

too bad. they're missing great writing that transcends 'genre' (not that I need to tell you that)

and yeah, "Grass" was great. but if you haven't read Fresco or Singer yet...

[Character Assassin]

18. Let's see here...

I've read The Visitor, Beauty, The Family Tree, The Fresco, Raising the Stones, The Bones, Plague of Angels (one of her better ones), and maybe some others.

I've avoided reading "The Gate to Woman's Country" because I've heard it's waaaaaay to preachy (which she frequently borders on, but never seems to go over into).

[DuctapeFatwa]

13. Mistress of Spices, The Magic Mountain

spices is by Chitra Banerjee, Mountain is by Thomas Mann

[Richardo]

19. Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

Present-day sci-fi quest immersed in advertising and the emergence of global internet-based cultural phenomena (like DU! :D )

Writing sometimes a bit self-consciously self-conscious, but I likes the plot.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2TBM5ZD12G&isbn=0399149864&itm=2

20. Felipe Alfau -- Chromos

http://www.centerforbookculture.org/dalkey/backlist/alfau.html#Chromos

A controversial finalist for the National Book Award in 1990, Chromos is one of the true masterpieces of post-World War II fiction. Written in the 1940s but left unpublished until 1990, Chromos anticipated the fictional inventiveness of the writers who were to come along--Barth, Coover, Pynchon, Sorrentino, and Gaddis.On one level, Chromos is the American immigration novel par excellence.
Its opening line is: "The moment one learns English, complications set in." Or, as the novel illustrates, the moment one comes to America, the complications set in. The cast of characters in this book are immigrants from Spain who have one leg in Spanish culture and the other in the confusing, warped, unfriendly New World of New York City, attempting to meld the two worlds that just won't fit together.